Our local weekly newspaper got wind of our journey and put us on the front page. Take a look. Maybe dream a little.
Have a sprightly semester.
http://southsidejournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/07/14/news/sj2tn20080714-0716ssj-ryan0.ii1.txt
At a book reading yesterday at the Kingshighway Branch Library in St. Louis, a woman in the audience asked what was my best advice for parents who might want to roadschool?
Obviously, there are many considerations. Still, you want to know that you and your kids actually like to travel together. The only way you know that is to spend time on the road. There are always rough spots to be worked out–like how much time people need to do their own thing, how many hours they can drive without going nuts. (When my sons were young, we stopped at three or four parks every day along the route.They got out their bat, gloves and baseball while I stretched out on a park bench for a snooze.) We also found out that for long trips, a rigid schedule didn’t work. If the kids needed a break just to play at campgrounds and hang out with other kids, well, we’d give it a break for a couple of days. Those break days didn’t always correspond to destinations. If they NEEDED to stop in an area I thought of as nowheresville, rather than a place I was itching to explore, well, we stopped.
Getting that information in small doses–a week, a month–provides a lot of confidence that everyone can actually enjoy and benefit from such an adventure.
It is also important to be realistic in assessing your child or children. Not everyone is a good candidate for this kind of learning. If your young student would feel more deprived than excited by taking off and leaving friends, sports, and beloved activities behind, then limiting the experience to a few weeks in the summer might be perfect.
That goes for you, the parent, as well. Although you probably wouldn’t even consider this if jumping off to see the world didn’t get your blood racing and your eyes sparkling.
I am scheduled for two book readings here in Missouri. The first is Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at Meramec Vineyards Winery in St. James.
The second is April 18, at 4 p.m., at the Kingshighway Branch Library, 2260 Vandeventer, in St. Louis.
I will have books to sell and sign and will read excerpts and discuss some of the ins and outs of roadschooling.
In a few weeks I will leave St. Louis to travel west to Phoenix and Colorado, then on to California. I am open to do readings and am available for interviews along the way. I ill even be driving Dharma, our van. If anyone would like me to talk to their parents’ group or organization (I like to think you don’t have to have kids to enjoy the book), they can reach me at mary@roadschoolingryan.com
I just returned from two months south of the border.There is nothing like traveling in a foreign culture to perk up the senses and curiosity, both big boosts to learning. To really get down and understand people and their situations–how things differ, how things remain the same–can provide lessons for a lifetime, can open our hearts (not usually a stated goal for educators, but, oh, how necessary for a rich life.)
I was there for part of the time as a member of a human rights organization, Witness for Peace, to study the roots of the problems and violence in the city/state of Oaxaca which erupted in 2006 and continue to this day. We also spent time in a poor Mixtec town (the Mixtecs, a people with their own language, culture and aspirations, were powerful and highly-skilled, and for centuries resisted colonial and criolla enslavement and loss of their lands and way of life) to learn why residents were forced to migrate to the north of Mexico or the U.S. in order to provide for their families.
Talking to town members, our exquisitely courteous hosts, put a human face on what we often refer to abstractly as the “immigration problem.”
While most such delegations are for adults only, parents who want to help their children and themselves make a big leap in understanding our world and who have the courage to do the difficult can check out websites of involved organizations. Most assuredly they will receive useful information and suggestions about what to read, where to go and what to see.
As a start, look at www.witnessforpeace.org. Although this organization sponsors delegations for adults looking to understand problems in Latin America (particularly problems exascerbated by U.S. policy), it can provide a wealth of information to parents looking to expand their children’s horizons as well as their own.
There is an abundance on-line resources available for the avid homeschooler. One website I particularly like is About.com. Homeschooling is only one of many of the practical subjects listed. There is also one on family travel, so putting the two together, parents can get a good jolt to the imagination for roadschooling.
Tomorrow I fly to Mexico for five weeks, spending time in the area north of Mexico City near the ancient temple city of Teotitihuacan, then traveling south to the state of Chiapas and on to the state of Oaxaca. I will post information on anything which I believe would be useful to adventuresome, roadschooling families.
Let me wholeheartedly recommend a book by Rafe Esquith “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire,” published by Penguin Books. While written primarily for teachers, this little book is bursting with suggestions, information and inspiration to gladden the heart of every roadschooling and homeschooling parent. In particular, his chapter on “Goin’ Mobile” offers practical ideas on how to prepare for trip and take away the greatest value from the experience.
I recently heard Rafe speak and saw a performance by his students, the Hobard Shakespeareans. The children, fifth graders, grabbed the heart of the large audience by their naturalness, self-possession and spirit in speaking the Bard’s words, even though English was their second language.
Anyone wanting more information can check out the website www.hobartshakespeareans.org.
I suspect that one reading of “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” will convince anyone that anything less than excellence in education is not acceptable. I wish it had been available before Ryan and I took off on our year.
It’s true. After weeks, months of piles of papers, revisions, a stunted social life, doubts, promised deadlines, always one more thing to do, the revised-titled “Roadschooling Ryan: Learn As We Go” was brought to light of day the last of November.
Available through www.amazon.com, www.barnesand noble.com and www.iUniverse.com.
Now comes the next part–finding those people who really need or want to read it. So I begin a process totally new for me…going out to sell myself and “Roadschooling” to book stores, parent groups, newspapers, tv and radio shows.
I will continue to travel– without Ryan, because he’s a young man on his own– but now more for business and humanitarian reasons. As I pass through various locales across the continent, I will stay on the lookout for great educational possibilities, partly to satisfy my own curiosity, partly to throw out suggestions.
I invite readers of the book and this blog to send in comments, suggestions, and requests. More than that. I am asking that you help me find newspaper reporters, radio and television hosts, other hosts for readings and book signings who would find this to their taste. A media kit, along with other information, is available on my website www.roadschoolingryan.com.
I am available for consultation to those parents who think they might want to do the same thing. I know you’re out there. I met you. Talked to some of you. If not for a school year, maybe a month or two? A few weeks?
Go on. Have a great year. Hug your kids (or partner or parents or friends or all of the above) and keep your eye out for the next surprise. Down the road, of course.
Introduction to Learn As We Go: Travels with My Son will be posted in the next few days as proposals begin circulating to agents. Read and tell me what you think.
Thank you.
Mary
OR…MUSINGS NOT INCLUDED IN MY BOOK
What does it take to do a year like this? Well, you need to get along pretty well with your kid. I don’t take this for granted. Some times personality quirks interfere between parent and child. It’s not a moral issue and it’s not a question of love. But it does affect how much time two people can happily spend together, and if they can get on the same track to begin with. Fundamental as having some interests in common.
Harmony…I guess that’s the best word.
Tolerance. That’s important, too. Living in close quarters, each person has to put up with a fair number of each other’s foibles. Those get magnified in a 24/7 situation.
And, finally, you have to honestly enjoy each other’s company, much of the time.